


Seventeen High Musical

by three_mugs_of_tea



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, High School Musical AU, M/M, fem!Jihoon, fem!Junhui, fem!Seungkwan, fem!Wonwoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-07-29 21:27:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7700290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/three_mugs_of_tea/pseuds/three_mugs_of_tea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basketball captain Choi Seungcheol and smart kid Hong Jisoo met by chance at karaoke night. When they meet again in school, Pledis High is in for a big change. Can Seungcheol and Jisoo break the high school mould? Can Seungkwan secure her musical lead? Can Jeonghan and Wonwoo ensure the victory of their respective teams? It’s High School Musical with a Seventeen twist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Start of Something New

**Author's Note:**

> It's here! I've already had this chapter sitting around for a while. I was going to wait until I wrote chapter 2 to post it, but I figured that I might as well get it out since it's done.  
> Let me know how you like this!
> 
> All of the titles will be the names of songs from the High School Musical Trilogy. And all of the songs from the movie will be replaced by songs by Seventeen.
> 
> Can you guess which roles Jin and Suga will be playing? :)

Seungcheol didn’t like karaoke. He loved his parents, but he didn’t love karaoke. So he did his best to hide in the corner until his parents were ready to go.

Just as his parents were getting ready to leave, his brother grabbed his arm and started dragging him to the stage.

“Come on, Cheollie! You gotta sing at least once!”

Seungcheol tried to protest. He doesn’t like singing. In in the shower, maybe, but never in front of people. But his older brother was too strong, and before he could make his escape, he found himself on stage with another boy.

“Duet! Duet! Duet!” chanted the crowd.

The other boy was blushing hard, and Seungcheol felt himself blushing as well. But before he could apologize to the other boy or ask him for his name, the music began to play, and they had to sing.

The other boy sang first, and Seungcheol was so entranced by his voice that he almost forgot to sing when it came to his part. But the other boy looked to him, and Seungcheol had to start singing.

_“As more time passes, When I grow up_

_I’ll understand you more_

_My love my love my love, my dear,_

_don’t you dare let loose of my hands…”_

The other boy joins him for the chorus.

“ _When I grow up, Things I think will change_

_Everything, everything_

_Is going to follow me, will only hurt my head_

_When I grow up…”_

Before Seungcheol knew it, the song was over. The other boy stared at him, and Seungcheol stared back. The other boy was handsome, with large doe eyes and a shy smile. Seungcheol thought vaguely that the other boy reminded him of a cat.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Jisoo. You?”

“Cheol, we’re going!”

As Seungcheol was being tugged away by his brother, he turned to yell, “I’m Seungcheol!”

He thought he saw the other boy smile more widely.

Seugncheol secretly hoped to see him again.

 

_One month later_

“Cheol!”

Seungcheol groaned when Jeonghan whacked him over the head with a binder. Granted, the binder wasn’t very heavy, but it still hurt.

“What?” he demanded impatiently.

“I said, are you going to watch the first years try out next week.”

Seungcheol sighed. “Maybe. Depends on how much homework I get.”

Jeonghan wrinkled his nose. “Oh come on, Cheol. You get the grade.”

Seungcheol snorted. “We can’t all be in the top ten like you without studying. I need to keep up my grades so that I can actually afford to go to college. I really don’t think Coach Min is going to care to much if I don’t show up.”

“Dude. You’re the captain.”

“Not yet.”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Did you hear about the new boy?”

Seungcheol perked up. “We got a transfer in the second year?”

“Yeah. Some guy from America. He’s not a foreigner, though. And he speaks Korean well enough.”

“Huh.”

“Huh, indeed. Wonder if he’ll be in our class. Hansol showed him around campus this morning since he’s half-American and speaks English. Said that the new guy’s pretty nice.”

“Well, we’ll find out if he’s in our class soon enough. It’s about to start.”

And sure enough, the bell rang, and all of the students filed in. Their homeroom teacher entered, and everyone quieted down immediately.

“Welcome,” Mr. Kim greeted cheerfully. “Hope you all had a good break. We have a new student, from America. Please come in, Jisoo.”

To Seungcheol’s surprise, the boy who entered was the same boy who he had sung with at the karaoke bar when he was on vacation with his parents. The boy didn’t seem to notice Seungcheol when he introduced himself.

“Hello. I’m Hong Jisoo. Please take care of me.”

Mr. Kim smiled. “Please take a seat and let us take care of business. There’s a seat next to Seungcheol, over there.”

The boy’s eyes widened when he looked to where Mr. Kim was looking and saw Seungcheol. Seungcheol waved and smiled. The boy smiled back as he walked to his seat and sat down next to Seungcheol.

“Hi again,” Seungcheol greeted.

“Hi again,” Jisoo repeated shyly.

“Please take out your advisory sheets and let us begin…”

Seungcheol couldn’t help but sneak glances at the other boy as Mr. Kim rambled on about the expectations about their second year of high school and the upcoming activities in the year. Jisoo was just as handsome as he remembered, although he had dyed his hair a bright pink since they had last met. He was wholly concentrated on his advisory sheet as Mr. Kim talked.

Seungcheol was snapped out of his totally not creepy observation when Jeonghan elbowed him with a raised eyebrow. Seungcheol blushed, and returned to his own advisory sheet. He hoped that Jeonghan wouldn’t ask too many questions.

Thankfully, the bell rang again, and Mr. Kim excused himself to prepare for his next class. Seungcheol ignored Jeonghan’s inquisitive gaze and turned to Jisoo.

“I didn’t know you were from America,” he began conversationally. “You speak Korean really well.”

Jisoo smiled. “Thank you. My parents didn’t let me speak English at home, so I speak Korean at home all the time.”

“Are you adjusting to Korea well?”

Jeonghan cleared his throat loudly behind him. Seungcheol sighed.

“This is Jeonghan, my nagging excuse of a best friend. Jeonghan, this is Jisoo. I met him while we were on vacation.”

Jeonghan smiled charmingly at Jisoo. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

Seungcheol returned to ignoring Jeonghan.

“Do you want me to show you around at lunch?”

Jisoo smiled. “I would love that.”

Jeonghan elbowed Seungcheol again, but Seungcheol grinned widely at Jisoo.

The class quieted down as Mr. Park entered to begin their Korean lesson. Seungcheol felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

 _Are you seriously ditching me at lunch?_ Jeonghan’s text read.

_Sorry bro. But Jisoo is new, and I didn’t to talk to him._

_Fine. Whatever. You better make it to try-outs next week or I’m never going to forgive you_

_Deal_

 

When the lunch period came, Seungcheol tugged Jisoo out of the classroom to show him around the school. He ignored the fact that Hansol had already shown Jisoo around that morning. He tried to show Jisoo all of his favorite parts of the school. They were finally on their way to the mess hall when Jisoo’s eyes caught on something and he paused.

“What’s the matter-Oh.”

Jisoo was looking at the auditions for the upcoming school musical in interest.

“Are you a singer or actor?” Seungcheol asked curiously.

Jisoo blushed. “I used to sing the church choir, but…I don’t know. It just seemed interesting.”

“I wouldn’t recommend auditioning,” a voice suddenly announced.

Seungcheol and Jisoo turned to see a petite girl with wavy hair and an unimpressed expression.

“The musical is for real artists, not amateurs,” she continued. “And hello, Seungcheol. Who’s this?”

Seungcheol rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “This is Jisoo. He’s a new student. And that’s not very nice to say, Seungkwan.”

Seungkwan huffed and tossed her long wavy hair over her shoulder.

“I don’t know about you, I’m trying to build my resume. And the drama club doesn’t need amateurs messing up our productions.”

And with that, Seungkwan flounced off.

“Sorry about that,” Seungcheol apologized. “Seungkwan’s trying to get into the K-ARTS. She’s…Very driven. But if you want to audition, you should do it.”

Jisoo shook his head. “I’m not really that talented.”

“You sounded great when you sang over break!”

Jisoo blushed again.

“Thanks,” he mumbled.

Seungcheol grinned.

“Anytime…I mean…I’d like to sing with you again sometime. It was really fun.”

“Yeah…I’d like that too.”


	2. Bop to the Top

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the sake of my sanity, pretend that this a mix of the Korean and American school systems.
> 
> 95 and 96 line are second years.  
> 97 and below are first years.  
> Once again, this is for my sanity.

Let it be said that Boo Seungkwan was not a quitter. She was going to make sure that Mr. S Kim was going to choose the musical that would have a female lead and not two male leads. He was still deciding, and he had told her that he needed to see the auditions before deciding which musical he was going to do.

“I want to put on a daring production this year,” Mr. S Kim had said. “But I need the right leads in order to put on the show. So we will have to see. But I will consider your request. If I don’t find the right actors, we will do your musical.”

Seungkwan knew the people in the drama club. They were no match for her. She could sing, act, and dance. She was a triple threat. Sure, Soonyoung and Seokmin were good, but they didn’t have the type of personalities to take on Mr. S Kim’s big project. And the others were only very good at certain aspects of theater. So she had been confident in her ability to score the musical and the role of her dreams.

But then she had seen Choi Seungcheol and their new American transfer student eyeing the try-out posters. She had never heard Seungcheol and that new kid sing, but she could tell that they had the sort of chemistry and personality that Mr. S Kim was looking for. She was not going to risk her chance at getting into K-ARTS or her chance of getting the musical she wanted or her lead.

So she decided to look up this Hong Jisoo.

At first, she was very unsuccessful. She couldn’t find him anywhere. Then, she overheard some kid from the basketball team saying that Jisoo had originally gone by Joshua while he lived in America. So she changed her search from "Hong Jisoo" to "Joshua Hong."

Bingo.

Seungkwan used a mix of her understanding of English and Google Translate to read up about Joshua Hong. She did not like what she found.

Joshua Hong was the best singer in his church choir. He had been one of the stars of his award-winning choir. There was no way Seungkwan was going to let him be sucked into auditioning for the musical. She needed to find something on him. Something else to take up his time…

And…

She found it. Joshua Hong, Math and Science Olympiad winner. It seemed like he had a very good record in America. Well. There was someone who would want to take up all of his time…

 

Wonwoo was not expecting to see a sheaf of paper on her desk when she arrived in the morning. She scanned the classroom and asked her classmates, but no one seemed to know how the papers came to be on her desk or why they were there. With a sigh, Wonwoo adjusted her glasses and began to sift through the papers.

The packet contained information about someone named Joshua Hong, and it was mostly in English. There were some notes along the margin clarifying certain American competitions and awards. Wonwoo could discern that this person was very good at math and science and that he had won some awards and competitions in America.

_We need someone strong in math and science for our academic decathlon team_ , Wonwoo thought idly.  _We have a good shot at going to finals this year. Plus, we still need to beat Starship._

On the last page, there was a note written in tiny, neat handwriting. Wonwoo pushed her glasses up and squinted.

_Joshua Hong is Hong Jisoo_ , the note read.  _He is currently in class 2B._

Hong Jisoo sounded familiar to Wonwoo, but she couldn’t remember why. She thought for a long time, then realized why the name sounded familiar.

Hong Jisoo was the new transfer student from America that everyone was buzzing about. Wonwoo had overheard both excited and judgemental whispers last week, but she hadn’t realized that the new student was just who she needed to finish her team.

“What are you looking at?”

Junhui was peering over her shoulder. Wonwoo smiled and turned to face her best friend. The short-haired girl eyed Wonwoo strangely, but Wonwoo didn't care. She had the best news and she couldn't wait to share it.

“Have you heard of Hong Jisoo?”

Junhui frowned momentarily, then nodded.

“He’s the new student from America, right? I’ve heard a lot of people gushing about him. Seems like he’s become really good friends with Choi Seungcheol. Although, I've heard some pretty unflattering things about him as well. But then again, it's just the class gossips. And you know what they said about me when they heard a Chinese girl was in their class.”

Wonwoo waved dismissively. “Ignore those jerks. I don’t have time for the basketball muscleheads or the class gossips. Anyways, this packet is about him. Apparently, he’s won science and math awards in America. Very important awards and competitions.”

Junhui raised an eyebrow. “We need a strong person in math in science. I mean, we’re good, but since the third-years graduated, we’re lacking in that area. We’ve got humanities covered, but if we want to beat Starship High, we need an academic monster of a team.”

Wonwoo smirked. “Well, I think we’ve found our academic monster. I’m going on a little field trip to see Hong Jisoo during lunch.”

Junhui grinned. “Let me know what he says.”

 

Seungcheol had a basketball meeting at lunch, so Jisoo wandered to the mess hall by himself. He found a table to sit down at and took out his lunch. He didn't mind eating alone, But he missed having someone to talk to. Back in America, he had his friends. Here, he had Seungcheol. Now, he was alone.

“Mind if I sit with you?”

Jisoo looked up to see a tall girl with long, straight hair and glasses. She was very pretty, and she looked very serious. Jisoo shrugged.

“Sure,” he said.

“Thank you. I’m Jeon Wonwoo.”

“Hong Jisoo.”

Wonwoo smiled. “I know. Two-time AMC national participant, two-time Science Olympiad Champion in California, and two-time National Science Bowl team winner. Have you joined any clubs here yet?”

Jisoo was alarmed. He had thought that no one in South Korea would know about his past in America, and he could finally take a break. But apparently, he was wrong.

He shook his head slowly.

“No…” he hesitated.

Wonwoo clapped her hands together. “Excellent. What do you think about joining our Academic Decathlon team here? We’ve just had bunch of third-years graduate, and the current third-years either aren’t interested or just don’t have time. We need someone who’s as good at math and science as you are.”

Jisoo frowned. “How did you find all of this out?”

Wonwoo eyed him strangely. “Didn’t you put a packet with all of your information on my desk?”

Jisoo shook his head. “I didn’t really want anyone to know about all that.”

Wonwoo frowned as well. “Well, can you at least consider? We’re trying to end our losing streak from Starship High. And this is the year to do it. You don't have to if you don't want to. But as the team captain, I would really appreciate it if you'd join us.”

Jisoo sighed. Wonwoo looked so hopeful that he didn’t want to crush her. And besides, he still needed something to boost his college resume. All of his extracurriculars were from America. If he wanted to get into a Korean university, he would need to have some activities in the country as well. Not to mention, aside from Seungcheol, she was the first person to actually talk to him and not whisper about him behind his back like the many of other students did.

“I can join,” he replied.

Wonwoo grinned.

“Perfect,” she gushed. “Please come to practice tomorrow afternoon. We practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons in class 2A.”

“I will.”

Wonwoo began to unpack her own lunch.

“So, other than that, how are you enjoying South Korea so far?”

Jisoo was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected her to stay after asking him to join the team. He thought she would run off and eat with her friends. But here she was, eating homemade japchae in front of him and waiting for an answer.

“Um, it’s been different. I mean, I’ve been here for summer vacation before, but it’s different living here.”

Wonwoo nodded thoughtfully. “Your Korean is very good, though.”

“Thanks. I had to speak Korean at home.”

Wonwoo smiled. “Well, if you need anything, I’m from class 2A. It’s probably pretty tough being in a new country and everything.”

“Thank you…”

"Not a problem. I moved up to Seoul from Changwon a few years ago. It's not moving from a different country, though."

Jisoo shrugged. "I mean, it could be worse."

Wonwoo raised an eyebrow. "I've seen the other students picking you apart. It's okay to say that it's not easy."

Jisoo offered the girl a wry smile in return. She was honest, and he liked that. He hoped they could be friends.

"It's just a little bit rough."

The school bell rang, and Wonwoo picked up her belongings.

“See you around,” she said cheerfully. “And don’t be a stranger to 2A. Let me know if anyone gives you trouble.”

And with that, Wonwoo was off.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note, there will be no Ryan-equivalent character in this story. I couldn't really find the right person to fill in the spot, so I decided to make up the new plot with the dual musical choices. I also wanted to introduce the team conflict before the try-outs, because why not.
> 
> I also wanted to add more depth to Seungkwan's character, so that also why I made up this new plot point.
> 
> Also, fun fact, when I was in high school, I participated in the AMC, Science Bowl, and Academic Olympics. And now I'm just a sad college student trying to convince the world that my major isn't useless.


	3. Get 'Cha Head in the Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My knowledge of basketball is limited to Kuroko no Basuke. I'm sorry.

Mingyu passed the ball to Hansol. Seungcheol hovered nearby, ready to snatch the ball before Hansol could pass it again. Hansol feinted to the left, but Seungcheol caught up with him before he could get too far. Hansol was planning to pass the ball. Seungcheol smirked. He was going to get it before Hansol could pass…

He blinked, and the ball was in Mingyu’s hands again. Seungcheol cursed himself for being distracted and rushed to catch up. Minghao tried to block Mingyu, but Mingyu was too tall. He scored easily, and Coach Min blew his whistle.

“Choi Seungcheol!”

Seungcheol ran to Coach Min. The short, blonde man eyed Seungcheol suspiciously. Seungcheol gulped. If Coach Min was cross with him, he was not in for a good time. He hoped that he wouldn’t have to run laps. Or do burpees. Either one would be awful. Min Yoongi was not a merciful man, and the basketball team had enough stories to fill a library about their coach’s tough training regimens.

“This is the third time you’ve lost focus during practice today. I’m not giving you any more warnings. Laps. Now.”

Seungcheol tried his best not to grimace. He nodded and started to run laps around the court. The rest of the team shot him sympathetic looks as he jogged around and around until Coach Min stopped him. The man scowled but didn’t scold Seungcheol any further. He merely nodded at Seungcheol before pushing him towards the court.

“You okay?” Minghao whispered. His brows were furrowed and he eyed Seungcheol nervously.

“Yeah,” Seungcheol replied, taking a deep breath. “I’ll try to mark Mingyu. Focus on making sure that Hansol doesn’t pass to him. He's our best shooter.”

“Got it.”

Seungcheol shook off his thoughts and focused on making sure that Mingyu didn’t get any of Hansol’s passes. He was successful at stealing the ball from Hansol a couple of times, and they started to gain points. Coach Min didn’t yell at him anymore, although he still occasionally frowned at Seungcheol. 

Practice was wrapped up with a brief summary and to-do list from the coach. Everyone rushed to the locker room to splash their faces with cold water and head home. A few of the players paused to give Seungcheol a sympathetic pat on the back as they left. He pretended not to be bothered, and made jokes about being sent to run laps.

As Seungcheol was leaving the locker room, Jeonghan pulled him aside. His friend seemed rather annoyed, and Seungcheol had a fairly good idea of why Jeonghan would be irritated with him. He was not looking forward to being chewed out by Jeonghan. Being the object of Coach Min’s glares was bad enough. He didn’t need Jeonghan nagging at him too.

“Dude. What’s up with you?”

Seungcheol frowned and quickened his pace. “I have no idea what you mean?”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes. “Right. So what was all that yelling from Coach Min about?”

There was no avoiding it. One way or another, Jeonghan was going to nag the truth out of him. Seungcheol sighed and found a nearby bench to sit on. Jeonghan joined him and stared at him until he cracked.

“Well…”

 

_“Are you really going to audition for the musical?”_

_Seungcheol had pulled Jisoo aside at lunch to talk. Not that Seungcheol ever needed an actual reason to want to pull Jisoo aside, but today was special. He wanted to talk to Jisoo about the musical. Ever since they had seen the poster for auditions, Seungcheol couldn’t get the idea out of his head. He really wanted to sing with Jisoo again, and musical sounded like it could be the way for him to sing with Jisoo again. He didn’t know what the other boy would say, but he figured that asking him wouldn’t hurt._

_Seungcheol shrugged. “I mean, it sounds like fun. So what do you say? Do you want to audition together?”_

_Jisoo hesitated. Seungcheol could feel his palms growing sweaty. He wasn’t sure why, but he very much wanted for Jisoo to audition with him. And somehow, he knew that it wasn’t just because of their karaoke session over the break._

_Seungcheol studied the other boy as he bit his lower lip and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. Seungcheol held his breath as he wanted for an answer. Jisoo pondered for a few moments before finally furrowing his brow and replying._

_“Well…I…I’m not sure, really. I haven’t really ever acted. Doesn’t a musical require a lot of acting? I’m not sure I could pull it off.”_

_Seungcheol grinned. “I’ve never acted either. But it could be fun. There’s no harm.”_

_Jisoo smiled reluctantly. “Maybe…When are auditions? I just joined the academic decathlon team, so I don’t want to miss any practices. But I’ll try my best to go to auditions... If we go.”_

_“It’s Thursday, I think.”_

_Jisoo pondered for a moment once more. Seungcheol crossed his fingers behind his back and hoped fervently that Jisoo would say yes._

_“Can I get back to you? I’d like to think about it a little more.”_

_Seungcheol smiled widely at Jisoo._

_“Of course.”_

_Jisoo smiled back at him, and Seungcheol thought he felt his heart flutter a little._

 

Jeonghan stared at Seungcheol in disbelief.

“Are you seriously telling me you want to audition for the school musical? Are you out of your mind?”

Seungcheol shrugged. “I mean, why not? I’ve never tried it before. It could be fun.”

Jeonghan made a face. He mimed gagging, and Seungcheol laughed lightly. Satisfied, Jeonghan leaned back and stared up at the sky. It was good to know that Seungcheol wasn't completely gone.

“Seungcheol. It’s the school musical. How is it going to be fun? At all? It's just going to be a bunch of dramatic theater nerds flailing around on stage and pretending to be in pain.”

Seungcheol shrugged again.

“You never know. It could be fun,” he argued. “Besides. Jisoo hasn’t gotten back to me yet. So I'm not sure yet.”

Jeonghan frowned even more deeply. He didn’t like this at all. Seungcheol was supposed to focusing on their upcoming game. He wasn’t supposed to get distracted by musicals or transfer students from America. He was supposed to be focused on getting through school, maintaining his grades, and making sure that they finally won the Seoul championship.

Then Jeonghan realized that Seungcheol had said that he was waiting for Jisoo’s answer. Jisoo didn’t really seem like the type of person to audition for a musical, so Jeonghan relaxed a little. If Jisoo didn’t audition, then Seungcheol wouldn’t either, and this whole mess would be over with. Seungcheol would go back to focusing on basketball, and Jisoo would focus on whatever it was that he was doing. And Jeonghan wouldn’t have to worry needlessly about anything at all. So Jeonghan decided to let things play out. Even if Seungcheol and Jisoo did audition for the musical, it wasn't like they were going to be picked anyway.

He sighed and patted Seungcheol on the back.

“Well, it doesn’t sound like Jisoo is that interested, so you should probably just focus on basketball, okay? Coach Min's pretty pissed, and he’s going to keep chewing you out if you keep messing up. You’re captain, dude. Get yourself together.”

Seungcheol frowned but nodded in agreement.

“I guess you’re right,” he conceded. He picked up his bags and stood up. “I mean, if Jisoo doesn’t audition, I probably won’t either. And maybe he’ll tell me that he doesn’t want to audition. And that’s okay. Sorry about being distracted during practiced today.”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes.

“Just make sure that you don’t mess up again. We’re all depending on you.”

Seungcheol laughed. “I’ll do my best.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a super big fan of this chapter, but I promise the next chapter should be more interesting. I just wanted to establish Jeonghan's worry early. The next chapter will be the auditions, and a new character will be introduced. :) Brownie points to anyone who can guess who is Kelsi.


	4. What I've Been Looking For

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a belated late chapter. I had writer's block with this for the longest time, but I was finally able to get this chapter out.

Jisoo stuck his head into the theater hesitantly. Seungkwan was on stage, performing an upbeat song in a pretty pink dress. Mr. S Kim, the drama teacher, was listening intently and nodding along. Jisoo snuck into the auditorium and found a spot towards the back. He still wasn’t sure if he really wanted to audition, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least hear everyone else.

“Hey.”

Jisoo was startled at the voice, but he calmed down when he realized that it was Seungcheol. The boy smiled apologetically and sat down quietly next to Jisoo. Jisoo turned back to the stage.

“Are you going to audition?”

Jisoo smiled ruefully. “I want to, but it seems like everyone is so good.”

A pair whose name were Soonyoung and Seokmin were performing. Their act seemed to be some sort of comedy act to a love song. The pianist tucked away in the corner of the stage seemed to be incredibly annoyed.

“Next,” Mr. S Kim declared after a moment. “Thank you for attending, but perhaps the winter show?”

The two left the stage sheepishly.

The next few acts were also unsuited to the drama teacher’s tastes, and one by one, he dismissed them all. Seungkwan had found a seat towards the front to watch all of the auditions from, and Jisoo could have sworn that he saw her flip her hair a few times during the auditions, as if she was highly dissatisfied with them as well.

Finally, the drama teacher stood up and stretched. He turned around to face the audience area and raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow. Jisoo felt his heart pounding. Could he do it? Could he stand up and say that he wanted to audition?

“Any more auditions?”

Jisoo held his breath and stayed in his seat. He wanted to say yes, but at the same time, he couldn’t. There was just something holding him back, and he didn’t know what to do. Next to him, Seungcheol fidgeted but stayed seated.

“Well then, going once, going twice…Auditions are over.”

It was at this moment that Jisoo realized that he didn’t want to pass up this chance. He bolted out of his seat and found himself blurting, “I’d like to audition!”

Seungcheol followed him as Jisoo ran towards the front of the auditorium.

“I’d like to audition with him,” Seungcheol declared.

Mr. S Kim tsked and eyed the two sorrowfully. Jisoo felt his heart sink.

“Sorry boys. You just missed the last call. Maybe try the next show.”

And with that, Mr. S Kim passed the two stunned teenagers and left the auditorium. Seungkwan shot the two a triumphant look before leaving as well.

Seungcheol sighed.

“Well, guess it just wasn’t in our cards this time,” he said with a sigh. “Maybe next time?”

Jisoo eyed Seungcheol carefully. The boy was frowning slightly, and his brows were furrowed. Jisoo was tempted the rub the furrows out of his face. Then he shook his head. What was he thinking? Sure, Seungcheol was his friend, but it would be unreasonable for him to do something like that. So, instead, he smiled at Seungcheol.

“Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be,” he agreed.

“Excuse me?”

The two boys turned to see the pianist who had been on stage standing in front of them. She was fairly short, with short pink hair and a determined expression on her face. She eyed the two of them thoughtfully.

“Um, yes?” Jisoo replied awkwardly. 

The girl stuck out her hand. “I’m Jihoon. I was hoping the two of could try out this song for me.”

Jisoo stared at the girl in shock.

“Us?” he asked hesitantly.

Seungcheol, on the other hand, grinned sunnily at Jihoon and nodded.

“Of course! What song is it?”

Jihoon smiled shyly. “Well, it’s a song I wrote for the spring musical that I was hoping Mr. Kim would consider. You might have heard Soonyoung and Seokmin singing it. Although, they made a mess out of it. Not their voices are bad. The mood was just all wrong.”

Seungcheol grabbed Jisoo’s arm and followed Jihoon to where the piano was. Jisoo wanted to protest, but he found his curiosity getting the better of him. How had Jihoon intended for the song to sound?

Jihoon shuffled a few sheets of music before placing a song labeled “20” on the piano. She frowned for a moment before turning to Seungcheol and Jisoo. She began to point to different parts of the music and explain what her vision had been.

“Okay, so Soonyoung and Seokmin went for the comedic interpretation, which is not what I was going for at all. This song’s supposed to light, and happy, but not funny. See the chorus? You’re professing love to someone. So it should be happy, but not too happy. Light. Not funny.”

Jihoon started to play. Jisoo start humming along to the first verse. It felt like a light and cheery love song. It definitely wasn’t comedic thought. He felt like he had a good idea of how it was supposed to sound, so he began to sing along at the chorus.

_“I wanna be your morning baby,_

_From now on it’ll be alright,_

_Mornings together baby,_

_I want you to be my night,”_

Seungcheol joined in.

_“Until all of the things you want become mine,_

_Look at me and be my sweetie,_

_You’re my twenties.”_

Jisoo snuck a glance at Seungcheol and noticed that he was smiling at him. Jisoo smiled back. This was a really good song, and he found that he was having a lot of fun singing with Seungcheol. He wished that he had stood up earlier to audition. It really would have been nice to sing this song on stage with Seungcheol.

_“Don’t brush it aside like it’s nothing,_

_If you want me, yeah,_

_If you want me._

_I give my everything to you,_

_If I’m there in your heart.”_

Jisoo, Seungcheol, and Jihoon were all startled when the door to the auditorium suddenly flung open and Mr. S Kim was grinning at them widely. He pointed a finger to Seungcheol and Jisoo.

“Come to callbacks,” he declared, before leaving and slamming the door behind him.

Seungcheol and Jisoo stared at each other in stunned silence before turning to Jihoon. The pianist was grinning smugly.

“I have the perfect song for you guys to sing at callbacks.”

 

Three days later, Seungkwan hummed as she skipped happily to the drama department’s bulletin board. Her performance had been the best, hands down. Soonyoung and Seokmin, who had been her top competition, had completely butchered their song. The rest of the auditions were nothing to sniff at. She was going to get her musical, and she was finally going to be the star of the show. Her future acceptance to K-ARTs was waiting for her. In fact, an entire life of successful show business was waiting for her.

Nothing could ruin her day.

That is, until she saw the notice.

“CALLBACKS?” she shrieked, seeing her name and two other names under the dreaded title. She glared at the names Choi Seungcheol and Hong Jisoo listed right next to her own. How had they been called back? They hadn’t even auditioned. The drama teacher hadn’t allowed for them to audition. After leaving the auditorium, he had even commented that he knew which musical he was going to put on for the spring production.

Seungkwan growled. Fine. Mr. S Kim could do his callbacks. But she was going to make sure that she was going to be the star of the show and not some upstart from America and the captain of the basketball team.

She had some work to do. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Jihoon is Kelsei. Who else could be Kelsei? :)
> 
> The next chapter will finally introduce us to most of the rest of Seventeen. 
> 
> It's going to be the Status Quo talk.


	5. Stick to the Status Quo

“You did what?” Jeonghan asked in a deadly quiet tone.

Everyone at the table shrank in fear except for Seungcheol, who continued to eat without any visible reaction. He had been best friends with Jeonghan for years, and he was used to him.

“I auditioned for the musical. And I’m going to callbacks.”

“What about basketball?”

Seungcheol gave Jeonghan a questioning look, then shrugged and continued to eat.

“It’s not going to interfere with basketball. I can balance the two. It's not like we have basketball practice every day of the week. Besides, I'm just going to callbacks. I might need a couples hours a week to practice with Jisoo and Jihoon, but it's not going to eat up all of my time.”

Jeonghan waved his arms around to express his frustration. The younger members watched in awe are Seungcheol continued to eat without seeming scared of Jeonghan at all. Sure, Jeonghan could be sweet and motherly, but he could also be downright terrifying when he was mad. No one on the team ever wanted to be on Jeonghan’s bad side. Jeonghan was the best prankster on the entire team. Everyone was at his mercy when he was in a mood. 

“But it’s theater,” Jeonghan hissed. “I thought basketball was your entire life.”

Seungcheol gave Jeonghan an amused smile. Jeonghan was not amused.

“Oh, come on, Hannie. You’ve got to have other interests. Everyone does.” He turned to the rest of the team. “Right, guys?”

Some of the less brave members stayed out of the conversation and stared down at their food. Mingyu, on the other hand, whether out of braveness or stupidity, nodded furiously.

“Actually, I really love baking! Cooking in general, actually. Did you know that I’m really good at making fried chicken?”

Seungcheol grinned at Mingyu. “Really? Actual fried chicken?”

Mingyu’s grin widened. “Oh yeah. I can also make a pretty mean scallion pancake. And I can make souffle.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Jeonghan glared at Mingyu, but Mingyu’s enthusiasm didn’t die down at all.

“I guess it wasn’t super manly? I dunno. I thought you guys would make fun of me, honestly. But if Cheol can do the musical, I think I can admit that I love to cook.”

Hansol coughed quietly.

“I rap,” he announced.

Seungcheol turned to Hansol. “Really?”

Hansol nodded sheepishly.  “Uh. Yeah. I have a mixtape and everything.”

“You should play it for us sometime.”

“Maybe.”

Minghao cleared his throat, and everyone’s attention turned to him.

“I can do martial arts. I used to compete and everything.”

Mingyu’s stared at him in awe.

“No way,” he whispered.

Minghao raised an eyebrow at him. “Should I prove it to you?”

Mingyu nodded speechlessly. Seungcheol interrupted before Minghao could actually flip Mingyu and cause an uproar in the cafeteria.

“That’s awesome, Minghao! You should give us a demonstration later! Anyways, Jeonghan, don’t you see? We all have different and cool hobbies! And it doesn’t affect our love for basketball at all. So I don’t see why you’re worried about me doing the musical at all.”

Jeonghan gave Seungcheol a thin smile. In all honesty, the musical wasn’t the only thing that he was worried about. He was worried about Seungcheol deciding that he liked theater more than them. He was also worried that Seungcheol would decide that a specific American boy was more than the team. But he didn’t want to cause a scene while everyone was begging for Mingyu to cook for them and for Minghao to show them his skills.

“I guess,” he replied reluctantly.

 

At the table where Jisoo was sitting with the rest of the academic decathlon team, a similar conversation was occurring.

“The musical?” Wonwoo asked in disbelief.

Jisoo nodded shyly. “Yeah. I used to be a part of my church choir, actually. I think auditioning reminded me of how much I missed singing.”

Wonwoo frowned but said nothing. Junhui nudged her friend. Wonwoo still continued to frown.

“I won’t let it interfere with practices,” Jisoo added quickly. “Practice is just as important to me. I’ll make it to all of the practices that I can. And if I can’t, I’ll study in my own time to make up for it.”

Junhui seemed to sense Wonwoo’s discontent and quickly spoke up to diffuse the tension at the table.

“You know, I used to be really interested in acting,” Junhui said encouragingly. She smiled at Jisoo. “I actually filmed a few CFs when I was a kid. Sometimes I apply to be an extra in movies when I have time.”

Jisoo’s eyes widened.

“Really?” he asked in awe.

Junhui nodded. “Yeah. I actually wanted to be an actress for the longest time. But then, you know, school and stuff became more important. But who knows? I could always fall back on that.”

“School and learning should always be the most important,” Wonwoo grumbled.

Junhui glared at her, and Wonwoo glared back.

“It’s healthy for Jisoo to branch, out, right? He’s still new and making friends here.” Junhui argued.

Wonwoo huffed but said nothing. Junhui turned to Chan. Chan, in turn, looked anywhere except for at Junhui and Wonwoo.

“What do you like to do in your free time?”

Chan shifted uncomfortably.

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, uh. I like to dance. My dad teaches hip-hop. Sometimes I help out in his studio and stuff. I’ve been dancing since I was a kid.”

Junhui smiled triumphantly.

“See, Wonwoo? We all have different interests and hobbies outside of school. Don’t give Jisoo such a hard time.”

Jisoo smiled at Junhui gratefully, and Junhui gave him a wink. Wonwoo mumbled something unintelligible and continued to eat.

It wasn’t that Wonwoo didn’t want Jisoo to have other interests and friends. But beating Starship was too high on her priority list to risk having her new star member wondering off and singing in some ridiculous musical. She needed to crush Starship this time. She’d promised to do so when she took over as captain.

At the same time, she did want Jisoo to make new friends in Korea. He was a really kind person, and Wonwoo genuinely liked him as a person. He was quiet, but he was funny and appreciated her lame jokes. He was shy, and joining the musical would probably help him break out of his shell a bit.

Wonwoo sighed and watched quietly as Junhui babbled about her former acting experience and Chan became bolder in describing the kind of dance routines he had come up with in his free time.

She debated on a good course of action.

 

In a different section of the cafeteria, Seungkwan smirked as she noticed the discontented and thoughtful looks on Wonwoo and Jeonghan’s faces. Especially Jeonghan. The basketball player seemed to be planning something. He glanced over at Wonwoo’s table occasionally and rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully.

Well, well, well. Looked like things would be just fine without Seungkwan’s interference. She should have known that neither Jeonghan nor Wonwoo would want to Seungcheol and Jisoo to be in the spring musical. It was the whole reason she had directed Wonwoo towards Jisoo in the first place. Seungkwan could seem ditzy on the surface, but she knew the inner working of the social scene of the school better than anyone. The jocks hated the geeks and the geeks hated the jocks. And they both despised the kids in the drama program. And that was how it was supposed to be. They were all supposed to stay in their respective social groups like they always had. Seungcheol and Jisoo were the ones messing everything up.

Seungkwan took a bite out of her apple.

The social order at Pledis would sort everything out. No one ever defied the status quo at Pledis. Seungcheol and Jisoo could try, but there was no way for them to succeed. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone was in character enough!
> 
> Angst is ahead. For only two chapters, though. But guys have probably seen HSM, so you should know what's coming.


	6. When There was You and Me

Wonwoo was minding her own business, waving goodbye to her friends as she walked down the hallways after class when she was stopped by a certain basketball player leaning against a wall and staring at her.

“Well, if it isn’t the vice basketball head,” she drawled as Jeonghan blocked her path. He was still leaning on the wall, supported by one arm. Wonwoo supposed the pose was supposed to look cool, but it only made Jeonghan look like a major jerk.

“I’m not giving you my homework,” she continued. She put her hands on her hips and stared at Jeonghan. He was about her height, and she wasn’t going to let him try to use his height as an advantage, as he usually did with everyone else.

Jeonghan smirked at her.

“I don’t need your homework to get good grades, Miss Know-It-All. But I have a plan that you can’t refuse.”

Wonwoo snorted. “Find some other girl to bother. I’m not one of those people that’s going to lay down at your feet just because you’re on the basketball team. Get out of the way so that I can go home.”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes but made no effort to move out of the way. Wonwoo tried to push past him, but he stopped her again.

“I’m going to cut to the chase. I don’t want Seungcheol to obsess over this stupid musical, and you don’t Jisoo to either, am I right?”

Wonwoo paused and crossed her arms. “I’m listening.”

Jeonghan grinned smugly. “I have the perfect plan to get them to snap out of it.”

 

It had been a hard day of practice and Seungcheol was exhausted. It didn’t help that Jeonghan kept bugging him about the musical.

“I just feel like you don’t really care about the team anymore,” Jeonghan said stubbornly as the two of them packed up after practice. The rest of the team had left already, and only the two of them were left. “Aren’t we important to you?”

Seungcheol sighed and rubbed his face. He still had a paper to write and a set of practice problems to do. He really didn’t need this conversation right now.

“You are,” he answered with a heavy sigh. “But I care equally about Jisoo and the musical. Jisoo’s new here, and he’s still getting used to everything here. Plus, he’s a really nice person, and I want to do this with him. He loves singing, and so do I.” Seungcheol paused for second before adding quietly, “And…I really like him.”

Jeonghan scoffed. “I think you care more about Jisoo and the musical, Cheol. And we don’t matter to you at all.”

Seungcheol inhaled deeply.

“Jeonghan, I don’t want to have this conversation right now. Can we just go home, please? We can talk about this later okay? I’m really tired.”

“When’s later, huh? When you’re practicing with Jisoo? When you’re being terrible during basketball practice? You’re not acting like the Choi Seungcheol that I know. I can’t believe you. You said basketball is your life. You said the team is your life. And now you’re giving it up for some guy from America that you barely know.”

Seungcheol threw his hands up in frustration.

“What do you want me to say? You and the team are the most important thing to me. Jisoo and the musical don’t matter at all. Basketball is and always will be the most important thing in my life, not the musical or the guy from America. I, Choi Seungcheol, swear on my life. Is that what you want to hear? Are you happy now?”

Jeonghan sighed and hung his head. “Sorry Cheol. I really blew that out of proportion, didn’t I? I didn’t mean it at all. I’m sorry.”

Seungcheol snorted. “Yeah, you did make a big thing out of nothing. Look, you’re important to me, and so are Jisoo and the musical. Just because I care about Jisoo and the musical doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped caring about the team. So can we please just go home? I really have to work on stuff.”

Outside of Seungcheol’s line of sight, Jeonghan stopped the video recording on his phone.

“Yeah, let’s go. Let me buy you dinner. As an apology.”

“It better be some good food.”

 

Jisoo was confused when Wonwoo pulled him aside after practice with a sorrowful look on her face. Jisoo had never seen such a despondent look on Wonwoo’s face.

“I think you should see this,” she said simply, handing him her phone.

Jisoo gave Wonwoo a questioning look but pressed play. The video was shot at a weird angle, but he could see Seungcheol’s face clearly.

“ _You and the team are the most important thing to me. Jisoo and the musical don’t matter at all. Basketball is and always will be the most important thing in my life, not the musical or the guy from America. I, Choi Seungcheol, swear on my life_ ,” Seungcheol said in the video.

Jisoo could feel his hands trembling. Wonwoo put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Jisoo felt frozen. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe. He just couldn’t. Everything had been a lie.

“I’m so sorry,” she said sadly. “Jeonghan from the basketball team send this to me. I guess Seungcheol’s been saying that kind of stuff in the locker room to everyone. Jeonghan wanted you to know, so he shot this video and sent it to me.”

He couldn’t believe that Seungcheol had just said those words. And apparently not just this one time on video. And who knew what else he could have said that Jeonghan hadn’t recorded. It seemed like Jisoo had never known the real Seungcheol at all. Jisoo couldn’t believe that he had let himself get tricked by the handsome guy with the big, beautiful smile.

“I’m so sorry,” Wonwoo said again.

Jisoo didn’t hear a word of it.

 

“Jisoo!”

Seungcheol waved at Jisoo cheerfully as if he hadn’t just shattered his heart the previous day. Jisoo quickened his steps and put his head down. He didn’t want to see Seungcheol right now. He couldn’t see Seungcheol right now. It was a good thing that school was over and he could run home and pretend like he had never known a boy named Choi Seungcheol.

“Jisoo, wait!”

Jisoo could feel tears stinging in his eyes. All of this time, he had been the fool. He should have known it was too good to be true. How could Seungcheol, the captain of the basket team, ever want to do a musical with a nerdy boy from America like him? Of course Seungcheol cared about his friends, his team, and his sport more. Jisoo just wished that he could have heard it from Seungcheol himself instead of from a recording of his voice. Jisoo hated being talked about behind his back. And he hated being someone’s pity friend.

Jisoo felt Seungcheol grab his arm. The other boy was panting, and he gazed at Jisoo with worry.

“Hey, are you okay? Is something wrong?”

Jisoo avoided Seungcheol’s gaze and tried not to cry.

“We shouldn’t go to callbacks,” he said simply, tugging his arm away from Seungcheol. “You should really focus more on basketball. I need to focus on academic decathlon anyways.”

Jisoo tugged his arm away from Seungcheol and began to run.

“Jisoo!”

Jisoo ignored him and continued to run.

He didn’t want to see Seungcheol ever again. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was realistic enough! Yes, I know Jeonghan and Wonwoo were terrible. But since the next chapter is already written, I won't leave you guys hanging with the angst for too long. :)


	7. Work This Out

Seungcheol was a complete wreck, and everyone had noticed. Even Coach Min was being uncharacteristically kind to Seungcheol, allowing Seungcheol to making more mistakes than usual and scolding him less.

Jeonghan felt like the worst person in the world.

He watched hopelessly as Seungcheol ran laps yet again. He had refused to talk to anyone and spent his lunch staring longingly at where Jisoo sat with the rest of the academic decathlon team. He spent class jotting down notes soullessly and throwing glances at Jisoo. Jisoo seemed equally despondent.

When Jeonghan passed Wonwoo in the hallways, they shared a quick sad look before heading in opposite directions.

Finally, Wonwoo pulled Jeonghan aside and dragged him to a quiet hallway.

“I regret everything,” she said simply. “We messed up.”

Jeonghan nodded and hung his head in shame.

“Seungcheol is an absolute mess,” he confessed. “He’s barely making it through the day and he won’t talk to anyone.”

Wonwoo sighed. “Jisoo’s been even quieter than normal. He doesn’t to want to hang out with anyone, and he’s barely eating at lunch.”

Jeonghan raised his head and eyed Wonwoo. The girl had pursed her lips, and she seemed to be thinking.

“We should fix this,” Jeonghan said after a moment. Wonwoo gave him annoyed look as if to say, “Duh.”

“Any ideas, genius?” Jeonghan drawled.

Wonwoo managed a small smile.

“I wouldn’t have talked to you if I didn’t have one already.”

 

Jisoo was puzzled when he heard the knock on his door. His parents were still at work, and Wonwoo had ended practice early. He was taking the opportunity to take a break and catch up on his favorite animes and eat chocolate ice cream. He set his ice cream down on the kitchen counter and went to open the door.

Choi Seungcheol stood there, sweaty, panting, and looking hopeful. Jisoo frowned before slamming the door. Seungcheol stopped him.

“Wait! Jisoo I need to explain.”

“There’s nothing for you to explain,” he replied coldly before prying Seungcheol’s hand from the door and slamming it.

“Jisoo!” Seungcheol yelled.

Jisoo slid down and sat with his back to the door. He buried his face in his arms. He couldn’t be weak now. He couldn’t let Seungcheol worm his way back into his life. 

Seungcheol continued to pound on the door.

“Jisoo, please,” he pleaded. “There’s been a misunderstanding! Really, I can explain! Please talk to me.”

“Go away, go away, go away,” Jisoo chanted under his breath.

Then, the pounding and the shouting stopped. Jisoo lifted his head from his arms. Maybe Seungcheol had given up and left.

Then, he heard it.

It was quiet at first, but it got progressively louder.

Seungcheol was singing Jihoon’s song.

_“Until all of the things you want become mine,_

_Look at me and be my sweetie,_

_You’re my twenties._

_Don’t brush it aside like it’s nothing,_

_If you want me, yeah,_

_If you want me._

_I give my everything to you,_

_If I’m there in your heart.”_

Seungcheol nearly jumped out of his skin when Jisoo opened the door a crack.

“You have five minutes to explain,” Jisoo said quietly, before allowing Seungcheol into his family’s place.

Seungcheol shuffled inside awkwardly and followed Jisoo to the couch, where Jisoo had been watching anime.

“I didn’t know that you liked anime,” Seungcheol commented.

Jisoo ignored him and patted the seat next to him.

“Talk,” he replied.

Seungcheol took a deep breath before taking out his phone. He messed around with it for a little bit before handing his phone to Jisoo.

“You only saw a part of the video,” he explained. He watched Jisoo carefully, but Jisoo remained expressionless. “You should watch the whole thing.”

Wordlessly, Jisoo pressed play.

_“I just feel like you don’t really care about the team anymore. Aren’t we important to you?”_

_“You are, but I care equally about Jisoo and the musical. Jisoo’s new here, and he’s still getting used to everything here. Plus, he’s a really nice person, and I want to do this with him. He loves singing, and so do I. And…I really like him.”_

_“I think you care more about Jisoo and the musical, Cheol. And we don’t matter to you at all.”_

_“Jeonghan, I don’t want to have this conversation right now. Can we just go home, please? We can talk about this later okay? I’m really tired.”_

_“When’s later, huh? When you’re practicing with Jisoo? When you’re being terrible during basketball practice? You’re not acting like the Choi Seungcheol that I know. I can’t believe you. You said basketball is your life. You said the team is your life. And now you’re giving it up for some guy from America that you barely know.”_

_“What do you want me to say? You and the team are the most important thing to me. Jisoo and the musical don’t matter at all. Basketball is and always will be the most important thing in my life, not the musical or the guy from America. I, Choi Seungcheol, swear on my life. Is that what you want to hear? Are you happy now?”_

_“Sorry Cheol. I really blew that out of proportion, didn’t I? I didn’t mean it at all. I’m sorry.”_

_“Yeah, you did make a big thing out of nothing. Look, you’re important to me, and so are Jisoo and the musical. Just because I care about Jisoo and the musical doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped caring about the team. So can we please just go home? I really have to work on stuff.”_

The video ended, and Jisoo sat silently. Seungcheol continued to watch him.

“Jeonghan told me that he and Wonwoo planned everything because they were worried that we’d be more invested in callbacks than focusing on the teams. But they realized that they’d messed up, so they wanted to fix it. Jeonghan sent me the whole video, and Wonwoo ended practice early so that I could come to your place and talk to you.”

Jisoo remained quiet.

“Don’t be too mad at them,” Seungcheol added quickly. “I mean, they really messed up. But they really feel bad, and we’re all teenagers, right? We’re bound to do really stupid things.”

Jisoo took a deep breath.

“I’m going to call Wonwoo. Stay here.”

Seungcheol nodded dumbly. Jisoo offered him a tight smile before leaving the living room and ducking into his own bedroom. After some agonizing minutes on Seungcheol’s part, Jisoo finally emerged from his bedroom and returned to his seat next to Seungcheol.

“Wonwoo says she’s really sorry, and she doesn’t expect me to forgive her,” Jisoo said after a moment. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to forgive her right now, but I think I can. Maybe later. I still want to talk to her face to face.”

Seungcheol let out a deep breath.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that. Jeonghan’s not a bad person. He was just really desperate.”

Jisoo shrugged. “I think it’s going to take me some time to forgive him too.”

Seungcheol laughed dryly. “Me too. I don’t blame you at all.”

Jisoo relaxed slightly. “Do you want some ice cream?”

Seungcheol stared.

“You’re not mad at me anymore?”

Jisoo shook his head. “Wonwoo only showed me the part where you said that I didn’t matter to you and that I was just some guy from America. I…I was really hurt by that. But after hearing all of that, I know that clip was totally out of context. Now, I have chocolate ice cream, which is exclusively mine, and then my parents bought some vanilla and strawberry ice cream. Which one do you want?”

Seungcheol grinned, and Jisoo smiled back. Seungcheol felt his heart flutter slightly. It seemed like things were going to be okay.

“Can I have a little bit of that chocolate ice cream?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand, end the angst!  
> I hope I was able to make this as believable as possible, haha.


	8. Bet on It

Seungkwan whistled merrily as she flounced down the hallway. There was absolutely nothing that could ruin her day. Last she had heard, Jisoo and Seungcheol had given up on callbacks. She had also done well on her English test today. All in all, Seungkwan was in an excellent mood.

As she passed by the music room on the second floor, a wonderful melody caught her attention. She stopped and listened.

Two male voices came from inside of the room. They sounded very good. A calming piano melody accompanied them. Seungkwan snuck closer to the room to get a peek at who was making the lovely music. When she peeked through the slightly ajar door, she felt her heart sink.

Inside, Jihoon was playing the piano as Seungcheol and Jisoo sang along. They sounded amazing. The two boys not only had great voices, but they also had a kind of easy chemistry that Seungkwan hadn’t seen before. The gazes, the small smiles, and the subtle touches between the two was on a whole new level.

They were perfect for the roles.

Seungkwan clenched her fist. She wasn’t going down without a fight. She went around school gathering information. A lanky kid from the basketball team mentioned their big game being on Friday, and a first year on the academic decathlon team mentioned their competition was on the exact same day. Luckily for Seungkwan, the two events were happening simultaneously.

“Mr. Kim, do you think we can change callbacks to Friday? I have a family event on Thursday that I can’t miss.”

Mr. Kim smiled. “Of course!”

Seungkwan smiled triumphantly.

At the door of Mr. Kim’s office, Jihoon inhaled sharply before running to the room where academic decathlon practice was being held.

 

The Pledis basketball team was shocked when the entire academic decathlon team and the quiet pianist from class 2-C barged into the gym during practice. Coach Min scowled at the intruders, but Seungcheol immediately jogged to where Jisoo was panting heavily. The rest of the team followed, and Coach Min - whether out of curiosity or because he simply didn’t want to reign in a large group of rowdy, curious boys - followed them.

“Callbacks got changed to Friday afternoon,” Jihoon explained before Seungcheol could ask what was wrong. “During your game and the academic decathlon competition. Seungkwan asked Mr. Kim to change it.”

“I tried changing the day of the competition with Starship, but they won’t change it,” Wonwoo added. “We only have a ten-minute break between the first half and the second half.”

Jisoo looked at Seungcheol hopelessly.

“I guess it really wasn’t meant to be,” he murmured quietly.

Coach Min cleared his throat. Everyone turned and stared at him.

“It’s not hopeless,” he declared. “We can’t move the basketball game to a different day, but we can do something about when it starts. When are the callbacks?”

“They’re at three,” Jihoon replied. “Which is exactly when both of the competitions start.”

“Well then. This might be a little unorthodox, but I have an idea.”

Everyone stared at the short coach.

“When I was a third-year in school, we pulled a school prank as a last hurrah. And our prank was to shut off the electricity in the principal’s office. I might or might now have been the main mastermind of that.”

The expressions on the students’ faces ranged from awe to fear.

“How?” Mingyu asked. Minghao kicked him.

Coach Min smirked. “Well, I have a particular set of skills that none of you blockheads know about. So, who else is good at electronics and wiring? Or computers in general?”

Mingyu, Wonwoo, and Chan raised their hands. Hansol gave Mingyu an incredulous look.

“What aren’t you good at?” he asked in disbelief.

“Making three-pointers,” Minghao quipped with a snicker.

Coach Min ignored the little squabble that began to break out and focused in on Jisoo and Seungcheol instead.

“I’ve always told you that basketball is important, but what I didn’t tell you was that I didn’t always like basketball. In fact, I used to be a rapper. Hansol, you can stop staring, it’s true and I’ve heard your mixtape. You need a little work. But anyways. I don’t see why you can’t sing and prance around on stage. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how much more focused you’ve been recently. I wander around the music rooms occasionally. You sound good.”

“Why are you around the music rooms, Coach?” Minghao interrupted cheekily.

To everyone’s surprise, Coach Min blushed.

“No reason,” he answered quickly. “My point is, we aren’t just a team. We’re family. And if Seungcheol wants to be a musical star, we help him. So if we want to get this done, we need to do some serious planning. Now, Mingyu, and you two, from the decathlon team. Come over here. I have instructions for you.”

 

Coach Min formed a huddle with Mingyu, Wonwoo, and Chan, saying that “I can’t have the rest of you know my secret methods.” He waved everyone away to the other side of the gym and told them to make friends. At first, the two vastly different groups of students stared at each other awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Finally, Junhui sidled up to Minghao and started a conversation about China. To the basketball team’s surprise, the usually quiet and sarcastic Minghao smiled brightly at Junhui as the two babbled. Then, two other students found something in common to talk about, and everyone started to relax and socialize.

“I’m really, really sorry about the whole thing with the video,” Jeonghan finally said to Jisoo. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I guess I was a little jealous.”

Jisoo gave Jeonghan a thin smile. “It’s probably going to take some time to me to forgive you.”

Jeonghan nodded. “I understand.”

Seungcheol slung an arm around Jisoo’s shoulders. “Well, at least everyone’s on our side now, right?”

Jisoo smiled up at Seungcheol, and Seungcheol smiled down at Jisoo. Jeonghan didn’t miss the fond look that passed between the two.

“Yeah,” Jisoo answered.

 

Finally, Coach Min finished briefing his “specialists” and gathered the rest of the students to form a final plan. By the time they had everything figured out, it was time to go home. To no one’s surprise, Junhui dragged Minghao off to somewhere. Other basketball students and decathlon students also started heading off together.

Mingyu grabbed Seungcheol’s arm as he tried to walk off with Jisoo.

“Cheol, you’ve got to introduce me to Jihoon,” he begged. “She’s so…She’s so beautiful. She’s like an angel.”

Seungcheol snorted and Jisoo laughed.

“Why don’t you talk to her yourself?” Seungcheol suggested with a smile.

Mingyu’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah! Do you think she likes friend chicken?”

“You should ask her.”

Jisoo and Seungcheol watched in amusement as Mingyu caught up to Jihoon and started babbling to her. To the duo’s surprise, the usually tense Jihoon relaxed and smiled at Mingyu. Mingyu made large hand gestures that they supposed was something related to food. They were even more surprised when Jihoon followed Mingyu to wherever he was taking her.

“Do you think he’s going to make her fried chicken?” Jisoo asked.

Seungcheol grinned widely and put his arm around Jisoo.

“I’m pretty sure he’s going to be feeding her an assortment of foods over the next few weeks.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder why Coach Min has been wandering around the music rooms?
> 
> *coughMr.Kimthedramateachercough*


	9. Breaking Free

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting this chapter as I'm crying over Goblin

Jisoo tapped his fingers on his legs nervously. Wonwoo put a hand on his shoulder. Jisoo tried to smile and failed. The competition was supposed to start in five minutes. The power was still on, and the two teams were eyeing each other cautiously. Wonwoo and Junhui had already briefed them about the students from Starship and their various strong points.

“Don’t worry,” Wonwoo whispered. “Chan is already working on it. I set everything up already. He just has a press a few buttons and they’ll have to push the competition back at least thirty minutes.”

As if right on cue, the power in the room went out. The officials in the room and the team from Starship looked around in confusion. Chan slid through the open door to give them a thumbs up. Junhui grinned and winked at Jisoo.

“The office sent me to say that the power should be back in this building after half an hour,” Chan declared.

The head competition official sighed and shook his head. He looked to the other officials, and they nodded.

“Well, I don’t want the power to become a problem for this competition. If both teams agree, we can delay the competition until the power is back.”

“Pledis is willing to wait until the power is back,” Wonwoo declared immediately.

The students from Starship muttered together for a minute before their captain, a third-year named Hyungwoo, also agreed to wait until the power came back.

“Alright then. The competition is delayed until the power is back. You’re free to socialize or to use the bathroom during this time. Once the power is back, we will wait five minutes for any stragglers to return before starting.”

Wonwoo grinned at Jisoo, and Jisoo found himself grinning back.

“Go,” she said.

Jisoo ran towards the auditorium.

 

Jeonghan nudged Seungcheol when the power went out. Mingyu slid next to them with the biggest grin on his face. The team from YG was confused. Their coach was arguing passionately with the referees and Coach Min.

“The game will be delayed until the power is back,” the referee declared after a few moments.

Seungcheol looked to Coach Min. The blonde man offered him a rare smile. Seungcheol grinned in return. The rest of the team clapped him on the back and gave their best wishes.

“Go,” Coach Min mouthed.

Seungcheol ran to the auditorium.

It was a good thing that the auditorium was in its own standalone building, completely unaffected by the power outage in the main building of the school.

 

Jisoo and Seungcheol almost ran into each other when they reached the auditorium. Seungcheol caught Jisoo and steadied him. Jisoo blushed when Seungcheol brushed a stray piece of hair away from Jisoo's face.

“We made it,” Jisoo whispered.

Seungcheol grinned. “We did. Come on. Seungkwan should be finished her act right now.”

When the two of them entered the auditorium, Seungkwan was dancing on stage in a sparkly blue dress to a song with a tango beat.

_“You and me like this_  
_Going we're going_  
_Going we're going_  
_Going we're going ooh uh_  
_You and me together uh_  
_Going we're going”_

Mr. Kim clapped when Seungkwan finished and curtsied with a flourish.

“Choi Seungcheol and Hong Jisoo,” he announced.

Seungcheol and Jisoo scrambled to get on stage. Jihoon was ready to go in the corner, and she smiled at them.

“We’ll be performing a song called ‘Pretty U,’” Jisoo declared.

Jihoon began to play. Jisoo took the first part.

_“What kind of expression_

_Can deliver my heart?_

_Should I take my heart out to copy_

_And paste on you?”_

While Jisoo sang, he approached from the left side of the stage towards the middle. He used the small gestures that Jihoon had told him to incorporate in order to enhance the meaning of the lyrics that he sang.

_“On one fine day_  
_You magically appeared_  
_You took my heart and attracted my eyes_  
_You’re greedy”_

Seungcheol took the next part. Jisoo had reached the center of the stage, but Seungcheol was still on the right side of the stage. As he sang, he also moved towards the middle of the stage.

_“What I wanted to say is_  
_Don’t take this the wrong way_  
_But I can’t see anything but you_  
_You’re so ice ice baby_  
_At the same time you melt me down_  
_Just can’t get enough_  
_I want to show you myself without hiding anything.”_

They smiled at each other before singing together. They were both at the center of the stage now. They held hands as they sang the next part.

_“Oh, we chose each other and_  
_Focus on by nano unit_  
_When I see you, it’s breathtaking_  
_Normally I’m not like this_

_I want to pick and gather all_  
_The pretty words for you_  
_They stick in my_  
_Throat in front of you_  
  
_I promise myself, while drinking_  
_A glass of water in the morning, to tell you_  
_I will confess what has been_  
_On the tip of my tongue tomorrow_  
_You are pretty.”_

They continued to the second verse, the chorus, the bridge, and then the chorus again. Throughout the performance, Seungcheol didn’t feel nervous or uneasy at all. Whenever they sang the chorus, Jisoo would hold his hand, and during the other parts, they would dance around each other. Seungcheol had been nervous about the dancing, but with Jisoo by his side, he didn’t feel nervous at all.

When they finished and bowed, Mr. Kim was standing and applauding.

“That is the best duet performance I have ever seen in my ten years of teaching,” he declared. “My mind is made. We will perform ‘Walk with Me’ for our spring production with Choi Seungcheol and Hong Jisoo in the leading roles. Callbacks are complete.”

Seungcheol couldn’t believe his ears. He turned to Jisoo, who was grinning so widely that his face could have split in half.

“We got the part,” Seungcheol remarked in awe.

Jisoo laughed while tears streamed out of his eyes and pulled Seungcheol into a tight hug. Seungcheol hugged back even more tightly.

“We did.”

Jihoon tapped Seungcheol on the shoulder.

“I hate to break this moment, but the power is going to return in about ten minutes so you both need to run now,” she said.

They two boys smiled and pulled Jihoon into their hug. She protested at first but gave in when it was obvious that the two boys were not going to let go.

“Seriously though, you guys need to run.”

And just as suddenly, Jihoon was dropped out of the hug as the two boys scrambled off of the stage and ran back to their respective competitions. Jihoon shook her head, although the gesture betrayed her fondness for the two.

“Now, where is the gym?” she mumbled to herself. “Someone promised me some homemade fried chicken after his game.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seungkwan was singing Fast Pace, by the way. It's my favorite song on Going Seventeen.  
> Last chapter next! I hope the pacing on the last two chapters weren't too bad.


	10. We're All in This Together

“The final score is 55 to 60. Pledis High School wins by a margin of five points. Congratulations. You will be going to the elimination rounds.”

Jisoo was frozen in his seat as Chan jumped up and cheered and Wonwoo and Junhui hugged each other with tears in their eyes.

“We did it!” Wonwoo cried hoarsely.

The team from Starship approached them to exchange congratulations. It all flew by Jisoo, and before he knew it, the team from Starship and the officials had left, and they were the only people left in the room. Wonwoo and Junhui pulled him into a hug, and he found himself laughing when they both started laughing. Chan stood off to the side rolling his eyes until he too was pulled into the group hug.

“So what’s next?” Jisoo asked after they had all separated.

Wonwoo grinned at him and Junhui nudged him.

“The basketball game isn’t over yet,” Junhui replied. “We can still watch them cream YG’s butt.”

Wonwoo snorted. “Are you sure you don’t to see a certain first year with curly hair?”

Junhui clicked her tongue.

“Right, and you don’t want to see a certain long-haired player.”

Chan sighed heavily. “You know what, I’m going to see the end of the game. Hansol and I were going to hang out afterward anyways. You guys do what you want.”

Wonwoo and Junhui continued to bicker as they followed Chan out the door. Jisoo chuckled softly before following them.

 

The academic decathlon team arrived just in time to see Mingyu score the winning basket. Chaos erupted in the gym once Pledis won. Coach Min threw up his arms and screamed while the rest of the players scattered and began to hug everyone in sight. Mingyu ran to where Jihoon was sitting on the bleachers and lifted her up by the waist and spun her around while she laughed. Minghao waved enthusiastically at Junhui, who jogged over to him. Chan scampered off to congratulate Hansol, and Wonwoo quietly found a spot to sit on the bleachers. Once Seungcheol was released from the hugs of his teammates, he ran over to where Jisoo was standing near the bleachers.

“Hi,” he said breathlessly.

“Hi,” Jisoo replied just as breathlessly.

They grinned at each other.

“I’m going to kiss you now,” Seungcheol said after a moment.

“Okay.”

And he did.

Whistles and cheers came from the Pledis team and students as they did so.

“Finally!” someone who sounded suspiciously like Junhui yelled.

When they parted, Seungcheol smiled shyly at Jisoo.

“Will you be my boyfriend?” he asked simply.

Jisoo smiled back. “Yes.”

“Hey, Captain! We need you back so we can formally conclude with the other team.”

Seungcheol hugged Jisoo. “I’ll be back.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

 

Wonwoo watched Jisoo and Seungcheol walk around glued to each other with a faint smile on her lips. The team from YG had left, but the Pledis team was still celebrating their championship win. It was good to see Jisoo smiling so happily, holding hands with Seungcheol and chatting with everyone.

“Hey.”

Wonwoo snorted. Jeonghan was leaning against the bleachers next to her. She supposed it looked kind of cool.

“Hey yourself.”

Jeonghan smirked. “So, Miss Know-It-All, how does lunch this Sunday sound?”

Wonwoo raised an eyebrow at Jeonghan. “Are you asking me on a date?”

“Well, since Seungcheol and Jisoo are going to be glued together, we’re probably going to see each other a lot in the future. Wouldn’t hurt to get to know each other a little better, am I right?”

Wonwoo looked away from Jeonghan and returned her gaze back to Jisoo and Seungcheol.

“I could always make an effort not to see you,” she commented.

Wonwoo didn’t have to look to know that Jeonghan was frowning.

“Okay, it is a date. Can’t you at least let me be a little cool?”

Wonwoo grinned. “Nope. See you on Sunday, musclehead.”

 

Hansol wasn’t expecting to see Seungkwan striding towards him in a blue, sparkly dress, but at the same time, he wasn’t not happy to see her. Chan had wandered off with Jeonghan, leaving Hansol to pack up his gear.

“Uh…”

Seungkwan grabbed both of his hands.

“Your mixtape is amazing,” she said simply.

Hansol’s eyes widened. Sure, he had very awkwardly shoved his mixtape in her hands a couple of days ago before running away and regretting everything he ever did, but he wasn’t expecting her to actually listen to it. Seungkwan was the star of the drama program. He thought she’d be interested in opera and pop or something.

“Um, thanks?”

Seungkwan grinned widely at him. “Do you have any more?”

Hansol blinked. “Um, I’m working on some stuff?”

“I want to hear it.”

Hansol thought that he was going to pass out. Not only had they won the championship game, but the girl he had been crushing on since middle school wanted to hear his music.

“Uh…You want to dinner?”

“Sure!”

 

By some miracle, everyone ended up going to the same restaurant. It started with Junhui declaring that she was going to take everyone on the academic decathlon team to dinner. Then Seungcheol had tagged along because he needed to spend quality time with Jisoo. Then Junhui had dragged Minghao, who had dragged Mingyu, who had dragged Jihoon. Jeonghan found an excuse to join them, and then all of them crowded into the small family restaurant. Hansol and Seungkwan ended up going to the same place, and even though Seungkwan protested, everyone insisted that they join as well.

“Your audition was really good,” she said sincerely to Seungcheol and Jisoo as everyone had settled down. “I’m…I’m glad you got the parts. You deserve it.”

Seungcheol and Jisoo stared at Seungkwan in awe.

“Uh, thanks,” Seungcheol stuttered after a moment.

Seungkwan huffed. “I’m not that bad. I recognize talent when I see it. And this time, I lost fair and square. You guys better watch out for the next production thought.”

Jisoo couldn’t help but to smile a little. “Let’s all keep working hard.”

The food arrived, and soon enough, everyone at the table was engaged in lively conversations. Chan was awkwardly third-wheeling Hansol and Seungkwan’s conversation about Hansol’s mixtape. Junhui and Minghao were teasing Mingyu about something while Jihoon watched on in amusement. Wonwoo and Jeonghan were quietly bickering about something else.

“It’s nice to see everyone getting along,” Jisoo commented quietly to Seungcheol.

Seungcheol smiled. “It’s all thanks to you. If you hadn’t come to Pledis, we never would have auditioned for the musical. And if we hadn’t auditioned for the musical, I think all of the different cliques would have just stayed separate forever.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Jisoo protested. “I’m sure everyone would have found common ground eventually.”

Before Seungcheol could argue back, Mingyu gasped loudly. Minghao and Jihoon smacked him on the arm simultaneously. Everyone laughed before quieting down to hear what Mingyu had to say.

“Is that…Coach Min and Mr. Kim?”

Everyone’s head swiveled to where Mingyu was pointing.

“Holy crap,” Seungkwan muttered.

In the corner of the restaurant, Coach Min was blushing profusely as Mr. Kim stuffed food in his mouth and chattered at him happily.

“So that’s why he’s been wandering around the music rooms so much,” Mingyu mumbled

Jihoon snorted. “I knew something was up when Mr. Kim started carrying around a mirror in his pocket. I mean, he’s invested in his looks, but not that much.”

Jeonghan snuck out his phone. “I’m not letting this one slide. I’m going to take ten thousand pictures and show them to Coach Min the next time he makes us run laps.”

Seungcheol shook his head, and Jisoo sighed. Wonwoo rolled her eyes, and the rest of the table either laughed or groaned.

After the initial shock passed, everyone decided not to crash the two adults’ date and returned to devouring as much food as they could. Jisoo took a break from eating to take in the whole situation. When he had moved to Seoul in the winter, he hadn’t expected to end up here, in a family restaurant, with friends and even a boyfriend. It all seemed kind of surreal to him.

“Whatcha thinking about?”

Jisoo smiled at Seungcheol, who was rubbing his knuckles gently.

“Nothing,” he replied. “Just thinking about how happy I am.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a perfect world, where everyone would cheer for two boys kissing in public is where this story takes place.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed! This chapter is really just wrapping up all of the loose ends, haha.   
> Hope the ending was okay!


End file.
